Hollister - Local drug busters have uprooted almost 20,000 illegal marijuana plants growing throughout the county this year, down from previous seasons because of drought conditions, the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team announced Thursday.
UNET Cmdr. Mark Colla said when agents finish raids for this growing season - which runs through the end of September - the number of plants seized will most likely be down from previous years.
As of a raid Wednesday, agents had seized 19,345 plants in San Benito County.
"It's been a short season because we had a short winter and there's not a lot of water out there," Colla said.
Throughout the years, Colla said agents have seen creative ways for growers to deliver water to their illicit crop.
Garden hoses stretching for miles that operate on gravity and plastic-lined holes - camouflaged to circumvent detection - are one technique growers have employed to feed the marijuana gardens in remote, hilly areas of the county where water is not readily available. Agents have also found water mattresses - also camouflaged - filled to act as water reservoirs.
This year, growers have even tapped into cattle water pumps to steal from ranchers, Colla said.
"Anytime a rancher loses a significant amount of water, that's an indication," Colla said.
In most years, arrests have accompanied the raids. Those arrested have typically been Mexican nationals who camp out in the hills, guarding the marijuana crops, Colla said.
There has been one arrest so far this year, the commander said.
Sheriff Curtis Hill said growers have taken to public lands, such as Bureau of Land Management property, to set up shop more frequently in recent years. Colla said UNET has worked more closely with state and national park rangers as a result.
"The environmental impact is huge," Hill said. "This concerns me, too. It affects our water shed and soil erosion, not to mention all the harmful chemicals being dumped."
San Benito County has been lucky because of the cooperation of local ranchers in sniffing out illegal marijuana operations, Hill said. Local agencies have kept the problem from getting out of hand, Hill said.
"In other counties, this marijuana growing issue is becoming a really, really big deal," Hill said. "Some of these counties are pulling hundreds of thousands of plants where they're using 300 personnel to get it out."
In three weeks this year, Shasta County spent $750,000 on helicopter air time to assist in its raids, Hill said.
In the early part of the decade when the county was busting multiple methamphetamine labs every year, Hill said, lawmakers and law enforcement throughout the state took a stance against the drug.
"We pushed meth labs south of the border," Hill said.
Most of the marijuana operations now found in the county and throughout the state are the work of Mexican drug cartels, the sheriff said.
"I think it's about time we start looking for strategies from the Legislature to start pushing some of this stuff out of here," Hill said.
Michael Van Cassell Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335.
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